Days after poll debacle 4 Cong MLCs defect to TRS in Telangana

Compounding the Congress' woes in Telangana, four of its six MLCs defected to the ruling TRS on Monday, days after the opposition party's debacle in the assembly polls.

They have requested Legislative Council Chairman K Swamy Goud to recognise them as members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

The four Congress MLCs -- M S Prabhakar Rao, T Santosh Kumar, K Damodar Reddy and Akula Lalitha -- met Goud and petitioned him to "merge" them with the TRS.

Two-thirds lawmakers of a party are required to split its legislature group in a House without attracting the provisions of the anti-defection law.

Acting swiftly, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir also met Goud and appealed to him to disqualify the four for their alleged anti-party activities.

The Congress has six members in the 40-member council.

"Swamy Goud assured (us) that he will think about (the matter) after considering the rules," Prabhakar Rao told reporters, adding they decided to quit the Congress at a meeting of its legislature party on yesterday.

Uttam Kumar Reddy and Shabbir met Goud soon thereafter.

"As the party president, I wish to convey that there was no meeting of the CLP on December 20," Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

He said Prabhakar Rao had defected from the Congress to the TRS in 2016 and a petition for his disqualification was pending with the chairman for the last two years.

Similarly, Damodar Reddy had defected to the TRS and his disqualification petition was also pending.

"The Indian National Congress party is a 130-year-old party and it is preposterous that some members, who have already defected to the TRS, are putting an application for merger of the CLP into the TRS party," Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

In his letter to Goud, the TPCC president contended that the chairman or speaker of the council were not competent authorities to decide on merger of parties. He claimed the Supreme Court had settled the issue through several judgements.

According to the constitution of the Indian National Congress, state units have no power to merge with other parties, Reddy said.

"A national party cannot be merged with a regional political party. Seeking (a) merger per se incurs disqualification. Rank and file of a political party throughout the nation have to accept the merger," he said.

Para 4 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution is not independent and it has to be read in harmony with other paras, he added.

If the request of the four MLCs is accepted, the Congress would lose its opposition status in the council as 1/10th of the total strength of the House is required to enjoy the status.

The Congress suffered a drubbing in the recent Telangana assembly polls. The party, which formed a "grand alliance" with the TDP, CPI and the Telangana Jan Samithi, managed to win only 19 seats in the 119-member House.

The TRS scored a thumping win and returned to power for a second straight term winning 88 seats.